Spotify Launches in the US Today

Date: 14 Jul 2011

Spotify, the successful online music streaming service, has over 10 million users in Europe - and they have announced that they are launching the service to the US market today.

The announcement was made yesterday, following a statement on July 6th that the launch was imminent.

10% of Spotify's European audience pay a subscription fee, the remainder being able to use the free service on a limted basis with advertising. Recent changes to the service in Europe are thought to have been put in place to make the US launch more successful. US music labels have been wary of the Spotify business model, based on user subscriptions and ad revenue. Users may now only listen to up to 10 hours of free streaming, and Spotify have reduced the number of times a track can be played through the free service.

Spotify face strong competition from other, more established US music streaming services like Pandora (with an estimated 100 million users in the US).